Biology

Zubat is a blue, bat-like Pokémon. While it lacks eyes, it has pointed ears with purple insides and a mouth with four pointed teeth. There are two pointed teeth on both the upper and lower jaws, and a male will have larger pointed teeth than the female. It has purple wing membranes support by two, elongated fingers, and two long, thin, tails.

Zubat lives in abundance in caves. It has evolved to have neither eyes nor nostrils, instead navigating through dark environments with echolocation. As demonstrated in the anime, it will leave its abode at night with a mass of other Zubat in order to seek prey. During the daytime, Zubat sleeps hanging upside down in caves, forests, or under the eaves of old buildings, avoiding sunlight at all costs. Daylight causes Zubat to become unhealthy, and prolonged exposure can even burn its skin. However, captured and trained Zubat have been recorded as being much more tenacious in the daytime, even when directly exposed to sunbeams.

Trivia

No other Pokémon has the same type combination as the Zubat evolutionary family.

Zubat's evolutionary line seems to have a connection with Woobat's family. Both of them are Bat Pokémon species, live in caves or other dark places, and have no visible eyes; furthermore, both of them reach their respective fully-evolved form by friendship, and both have similar Shiny forms (with green main bodies). Also, Zubat and Woobat have somewhat similar English names, both having rhyming prefixes and bat as a suffix.

Zubat and Golbat are the only Pokémon to appear in the lineup of every villainous team in the main series games.

Origin

Naturally, Zubat's design is inspired by bats. Its lack of eyes may come from the misconception that bats are blind.

Name origin

Zubat may be a pun based on both bat and ずばっと zubatto, an onomatopoeia for when an edged tool forcefully pierces something (possibly referring to its fangs or the sound a bat makes).

In other languages

Language

Title

Meaning

Japanese

ズバット Zubat

From bat and ずばっと zubatto, an onomatopoeia for when an edged tool forcefully pierces something

French

Nosferapti

From Nosferatu, another word for vampire. The "rapti" part may come from the root "rapt" which relates to predatory characteristics. The "pti" may come from petit, to go with the alto in Golbat's French name